Oral History Interview: Oscar and Lutilla Watts
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Marshall University Marshall Digital Scholar 0064: Marshall University Oral History Collection Digitized Manuscript Collections 1974 Oral History Interview: Oscar and Lutilla Watts Oscar Watts Follow this and additional works at: https://mds.marshall.edu/oral_history Recommended Citation Marshall University Special Collections, OH64-130, Huntington, WV. This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Digitized Manuscript Collections at Marshall Digital Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in 0064: Marshall University Oral History Collection by an authorized administrator of Marshall Digital Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MAR S HALL UNIV E R S ITY JAMES E. MORROW LIBRARY HUN T INGTON, WEST VIRGINIA 25701 ASSOCIATES ORAL HISTORY GIFT AND RELEASE AGREEMENT I, the undersigned, of ...,;.. ......_ . I _____ ___________ , State ____ ._________ ··• /, . _, County of I . _1 of grant, convey, and transfer to the James E. Morr ow Library Associates, a division of The Ma r shall Uni versity Foundation, Inc., an educational and eleemosynary institution, all my right, title, interest, and literary property rights i n and to my testimony recorded on • . I ,' 19~ , to be used for scholarly purposes, including study and rights to reproduction. Open and usable after my review. initial Closed for a period of ______ years. initial Closed for my lifetime . initial Closed for my lifetime unl ess special permi ssion initial is gained from me or my assigns. - ··- .... Date -------------- (Signature - Interviewee) I i Address ✓ -- r- /P/ 1_r/ J h ./-.f l( ()?t-J( vf:,;, / .1? / (Sigµ ature - Witness) MAR S HALL UNIV E RSITY JAMES E. MORROW LIBRARY HUNTINGTON, WEST VIRGINIA 2S7O1 ASSOCIATES ORAL HISTORY GIFT AND RELEASE AGREEMENT I I, the undersigned, of _i_·-;_.. _________________,_ ....,.. ,,,s ounty of _________,,_ _ _: _.,_, State of grant, convey, and transfer to the James E. Morr ow Library Associates, a division of The Marshall University Foundation, Inc., an educational and eleemosynary institution, all my right, title, interest, and literary property r ights in and to my testimony recorded on 19 ··· , L ', to be used for scholarly purposes, including study and rights to reproduction. Open and usable after my review. initial Closed for a period of ______ years. initial Closed for my lifetime. initial Closed for my lifetime unless special permission initial is gained from me or my assigns. / .: Date I - / 1 /, ·' . • -~ -------------- (Signature - Interviewee) Address (Si~?ature - Witness) AN INTERVIEW WITH: Mr. & Mrs. Oscar Watts CONDUCTED BY: Elizabeth Ann Smarr PLACE: Huntington, w. Va. DATE: October 22, 1974 TRANSCRIBED BY: Elizabeth Ann Smarr This is an interview with Oscar Watts and his wife Lutilla Skanes Wattso conducted October 22 0 1974 0 at their home at 4250 West River Road in Huntington, West Virginiao Mro Watts was born April 29 6 1886, and Mrso Watts January 19 0 18910 both in log cabins on farms in the East Lynn araa of Wayne County o They grew up together and were married in August 19070 They first came to Huntington in 19100 Mro Watts has held several jobs in his life and has been a public servant for over half of his lifeo Among his offices he has been a justice of the peace and the first president of the Airport Authorityo During the interview we also talked about their recollections of their early lives~ In the background can be heard the mantle clock 0 the refrigerator 0 and the springs of Mro Watts' chairo Mr. & Mrs. Oscar watts EAS: This is an interview with Mr. and Mrs. Oscar watts, uh, by Elizabeth Ann Smarr. Today's date is October 22, 1974. Allright now, first I'd like to know what are your full names, both of you. OW: Well, my full name's just Oscar Watts. EAS: Allright LSW: And Lutilla Skanes Watts. EAS: Allright now when were you born? LSW: I was born January 19, um, in ninety-one. EAS: And Mr. Watts? OW: Eighteen, eighteen ninety-one. LSW: Eighteen ninety one. EAS: Mr. Watts? OW: I was born, uh, April the twenty- ninth, eighteen and eighty-six. EAS: Oh, and, ah OW: At East Lynn in a little log cabin. EAS: Nice, and, ah, what were your parents' full names? OW: Huh? EAS: Your parents' names? OW: Well, Alderson watts was my father, and Jenny Ferguson Watts was my mother. EAS: Uh hum, and. Mrs. watts? LSW: Um, my mother's rane was, ah, Belle Donahoe, D-O-N-A-H-O-E, CEAS: Um, hum._/ and, ah, her, my grandmother and grandfather Skanes were Absalom and Annie ••• Mr. & Mrs. Oscar Watts 2 OW: You ought to give your father's name fore you give them. LSW: Well, Harrison, Harrison and Belle was my mother's name LEAS: Um._/ my father o EAS: Right, uh, were you also born in East Lynn? LSW: Born in East Lynn in a log cabin rEAS: Um._/ on a farm and, ah, that's where we made our living. EAS: Right . Ah, do you have any brothers and sisters? LSW: I 'd two brothers, Hartley and Roy, rEAS: Um, hum.J and a sister that passed away at nine, her name was Lilly. EAS: Right. A--, are either of your brothers still living? LSW: One brother living. EAS : Allright. Mr. Watts? OW: Well, there was nine of us children, L-EAS: Um._/ and, ah, ah, sister Leathy and Macey and brother Scott have passes away, and I have living, ah, Willard watts, lives at Wayne, Lilly Osburne, Lilly Watts Osburne, lives at Wayne, and Homer, one of my brothers, lives in Delane, Florida, and Fred the baby, the family lives in Oak--, in L LSW: Redwood City.J Redwood City, California. EAS: Oh, I see. LSW: And Mary ••• OW: Mary, I have a sister, uh, lives, Mrs. Mary Newman, warren Newman, lives at Lavalette, she, how old is she, she's, uh, ••• LSW: She's eighty. OW: Eight, LEAS: Um, hum.J brother Willard is ninety-two, and sister Lilly is, will be ninety-one, uh, the eighth day of this coming May. I'll be eighty-nine the twenty ninth of April. Mr. & Mrso Oscar Watts 3 EAS: Um, yesq Now, ah, when you grew up on your farms, the respective farms, were any other members of your family, you know, besides your parents and your brothers and sisters, living with you? OW: No, none, none in my family L-LSW: Mine._/ my father always kept a workhand or two, uh, on the farm, and, ah, my mother and, ah, Judge Ferguson's mother were cousin, ah, she, uh, they were both Ferguson's, Lucian B. Ferguson and ah his wife were both cousins of my mother. /-EAS: Um, hmm, yes sir.J There's a long story to it, that, sh, my parents, the Watts' came into Wayne County way back there in the early days of the state. Three of them, one of them settled in, ah, Wayne County, West Virginia, and the other one went to Ohio and the other Kentucky LEAS: Hum, right in the Tri-State._/ and they never had, they never knew what become of either one of them after that. EAS: Oh, allright, and, ah, you said your grandmother. LSW: My grandmother LOS: (Cough.)J Skanes lived with us and, ah, she was left a widow when I was just a child, and she made her home with us, LEAS: Um._/ and she was our, ah, our doctor. EAS: ~h, what type, you know, ah, this was because, you know, it was hard to get to a doctor, wasn't it, back then? LSW: Oh, about five and ten miles. EAS: Right, ah, what kind of, ah, medicines, or did she use, you know, to treat members of family? LSW: Well, she used, ah, ah, different weeds. Now, she used, ah, I've got it down here someplace, LOW: Camphor Tea._L ah, well, ah, she would, ah, gather in, ah, in the fall, she would gather things like, um, ah, murdock and, um, ah, ground ivy, milkweed, foxglove, and catnip, and elder berries for bedwetting. If children, you know, how that goes, LEAS: Right.J and, ah, for colds she kept a jar of, ah, turpentine, camphor, and lard or mutton fat, and coal oil, which she used when we had colds or something like that. And, ah, then, ah, she was, ah, a very in- Mr. & Mrs. Oscar watts 4 dustrious lady in, in working, she had to have, ah, something to do. Well, my dad raised sheep and they'd share the wool, LEAS: Um.J the sheep, and card and spin, and she had a loom that she wove her cloth for our blankets and our clothes. Believe it or not I wore what we called lindsey dresses when I was a child. L-EAS: Um, hum.J And, ah, of course, ah, mother knit and knit our hose and socks for the boys, and, ah {OW: Gloveso_L gloves, and ah, LEAS: Hats and sca.rves._/ everything we wore they made it out of this cloth thai grandmother wove L-EAS: Um._/ on her big loom. Wish I had it now. EAS: Right (laughter) me too. And, ah, she had a special room for her loom or. LSE: Yes, she had a special place for herb--, loom and it was always tlE re when she had L OW: (Coughs. ) _/ to, ah, mother, she never done much of the work, mother was pretty healthy and she did the work and grandmother, she would, ah, ah, by the way, I learned to card, LEAS: om._/ card the wool, and I learned to spin L-EAS: Um, hum.J and I was just a girl LOW: She o • • J but I loves it, oh, I, I, LOW: Maul ._/ I, I worked right along with grandmother.